Fooling About
by Ardikus
Summary: Jaune wasn't expecting anything to happen at his family's Thanksgiving dinner, but that quickly changed once he found out one of his sisters had brought Yang Xiao Long about for it.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: So I started working on this before my (Canadian) Thanksgiving, but now I'm only finishing it before American thanksgiving, but whatever, it works. This one is (Very very slightly) based on something that happened to me at my family Thanksgiving last year. I say very very slightly because I'm a shameless shipper and couldn't not go for that, while for my situation it was all just jokes, and I went along with it a lot better than Jaune. Enjoy!**

"Ah, scuse' me laddie!" Jaune tried and failed to get of the way of one of his uncles, instead being bumped aside by the man's gut and one of his beefy arms. Pushing himself off the wall he'd been thrown to, he sighed.

Gotta love Thanksgiving Dinner with the Arc family.

Not to say Jaune didn't care about his family. He loved his mom and dad, and his sisters, all seven of them, as hard as they could make it at times. They were his favourite people in the entire world, and he never wanted that to change.

However, when you took that already large family, and brought in the rest of his fathers' siblings and their kids? Well, let's just say his dad having eight kids was just continuing the family tradition. They lived in a real big house, and even then, it was cramped.

Between his aunts and uncles, his cousins, significant others of those cousins and friends of the family, there was bound to never be a dull family gathering for the Arcs.

"Schnookums!"

Speaking of said friends of the family, Jaune thought with a long sigh.

One of his younger sisters, Ginny, had invited her best friend Ruby to the dinner. Naturally, the two had decided that it would be a great idea to also invite along Ruby's older sister Yang, who was in Jaune's year.

Somehow, this had lead to Ginny, Ruby and Yang deciding it would be a hilarious joke for Yang to pretend to be Jaune's girlfriend at his expense while the family was here, and act ridiculously over the top to try to get a reaction out of him.

Yang, of course, was all about it, taking to her role with the same amount of enthusiasm she put into everything else she did.

Which could only be quantified by Jaune as 'far too much.'

She stopped in front of him, arms crossed and leaning against the wall with a sideways grin. "You're not letting those big bad family members of yours push you around, are you?" she asked, eyeing the back of the uncle that had just bumped past him.

"Did you just call me schnookums?" he asked in return. Yang only grinned wider, unrepentant.

Her head tilted to the side, she raised an eyebrow, "You don't like it?" Yang asked innocently, twirling a lock of hair around her finger slowly to emphasize the act. "I thought you'd like a nice nickname, hon."

"About as much as you would, cutie patootie."

"aww," she cooed, grabbing one of his cheeks the same way some of his aunts would, "You think I'm cute?"

To be honest, he thought, no. Yang's younger sister, Ruby, was cute, Yang was, well, Yang was a lot more than that, in his opinion. Cute was far too mild a word to describe her.

"Eh, I think if I had to use any word it'd probably be annoying." Jaune settled on saying instead. He missed the momentary falling of the other blonde's expression, before she picked her smile back up. "Well, in that case I guess I'll just leave you alone." She said, before adding in a sly tone, "I do have to introduce myself to all your sisters, and your parents, of course. I'd be a pretty awful girlfriend if I didn't know your family, huh?"

Jaune's eyes widened in panic at the mere idea, and he watched in dismay as Yang took off, weaving through his crowded house with way more grace than he himself could muster.

Without thinking, he went after her, hoping he could at least catch up in time to keep Yang from telling everyone, at least. He could minimize his eventual embarrassment.

He finally spotted her again, having to take the time to apologize to all the relatives he was bumping into on the way through the house. To his horror, she had managed to get almost all of his sisters in one place. His eyes narrowed on Ginny, who spotted him and grinned innocently.

He went over to the group just in time for them to laugh at something, and all eyes turned on Jaune as he stepped in, coincidentally next to Yang, who shot him a smirk.

"So," his eldest sister, Maddie, began casually, "Why didn't you tell us you have a girlfriend, Jaune?"

"Good picking by the way," Addie added, before her twin, Danny, picked up the comment, "Yea, as if we needed more blonde hair in the family." She waved a hand over all their heads, and by extension the large number of blonde Arc family members that were in the house. Other hair colours were a very small minority.

Jaune gulped, his eyes turning on Yang accusingly, but all she offered him was a wry grin and a shug, as if saying 'why not play along?'

At this point, it probably couldn't get worse. Really, with someone like Yang being the one doing it, he'd probably be doing himself a favour giving in instead of trying to fight it. She was a master of improvisation, and at talking to people. With his luck, if he ran around claiming she wasn't actually his girlfriend, his family would assume that poor little Jaune is just being shy again.

Letting out a sigh, Jaune gave in. He was really getting tired of that trend.

"Just wanted to save it for today, make it easier to introduce her to everyone." He said flatly. He could see Yang grin widely as he spoke, so he decided to play her own game against her before she got the chance, "Isn't that right, honeybun?" he asked, turning to her.

He was delighted to see a faint splash of pink cross her cheeks as she reacted to the name, before she quickly got back into gear.

"Yea, he figured that this would be the easiest day to get you all in one place."

Maddie looked over the two critically, "How long have you guys been together?"

"Not too long." Jaune said quickly. "Just a few weeks or so."

From the side, he could see Yang shooting him an amused look at his poor acting.

Thankfully, it wasn't him who broke first.

Ginny let out a loud snort, quickly covering her face with one hand and getting everyone's attention.

"Sorry!" she squeaked, "It's just so funny watching Jaune actually try and pretend."

Jaune let out a sigh of relief, watching his older sisters raise their eyebrows almost in unison. The twins he could understand, but Maddie doing it at the same time as well was a bit creepy.

Seeing their faces, Ginny let out a small laugh, "Come on, did you actually think they were dating! It's Jaune!"

Well, that one kind of hurt, Jaune decided, looking down.

"Well," Yang decided to chime in, "Tonight, at least, we are dating." She shot Jaune a sly smile, "Guess that makes me the lucky girl, huh Lady Killer?"

He groaned at the nickname, shoving Yang away with one hand as she laughed at him.

"Oh, come on!" she pouted, "You so deserve that nickname!"

One of the twins, Danny, raised an eyebrow curiously, "And how exactly did our dear Jaune earn such a moniker?"

"Well, there's this girl in our grade, Weiss, and-" Yang was abruptly cut off as Jaune gripped her by both shoulders, hauling her away from his sisters, "Nope, nope, nope. Not happening. Not in a million years!"

Yang, through her laughter, managed to cry out, "But I haven't even told them about the serenading yet!" loud enough for everyone to hear, and he glared at the floor as his sisters burst into wild laughter, along with some of his other family.

"Did you really have to go there, Yang?" he demanded, frowning at her. His 'girlfriend' offered an apologetic grin.

Once he'd gotten her far enough away from his siblings that she couldn't cause him any more real embarrassment, he let go of her. He was surprised that she'd let him manhandle her this far, and wasn't really in the mood to push his luck.

She crossed her arms at him, looking more amused than anything else.

"You gotta admit, it was pretty funny, you chasing after Weiss the way you did at first." He shot her a baleful look.

"Also, Sugar Pie, if you ever drag me around like that again I'll break your teeth in." He smiled weakly at the threat.

"Well," he mused, "At least dating you hasn't made that any less predictable."

For a second, Jaune thought he saw her eyes widen in shock, but it went away so quick he decided that he must have imagined it, instead she turned on him with one eyebrow piqued, "So, we're dating now, are we? Here I thought you were trying to avoid it."

Jaune, once again, decided to play along, "Hey, I didn't avoid it back there, did I? My sisters were just smart enough to know that it couldn't be true."

Her eyebrows went from raised to furrowed in a matter of seconds, "And why couldn't it be true?" she asked, sounding confused.

Letting out a small laugh, Jaune gestured at her and then at himself, moving an arm back and forth between them repeatedly as if it explained everything. "You, dating me? I'm not exactly at the top of the food chain, Yang." Yang, on the other hand, was probably the apex predator in that metaphor.

Looking thoughtful, Yang stood in silence for a few long moments, before something seemed to click and she smirked. "Well," she proposed, wrapping her arms lightly around Jaune's neck, much to his surprise, "For tonight, we're dating, so we best make the most of it. What do you say, babe?" She shot him a teasing grin, looking like she was holding back laughter at his dumbfounded expression.

"Um." He replied intelligently, glancing at the arms that were around him. The idea of it was almost too tempting to even think about, but Jaune was pretty understandably wary about the proposition. For one thing, it was ridiculous, and for two, it was Yang, who could very easily just be doing this for a laugh.

Yang tilted her head, "What? Gonna turn me down, that'd be pretty rude, seeing as I'm here as your plus one."

"You came with Ruby." He deadpanned.

"And Ruby came with Ginny. I needed a different sibling to piggyback off of." She threw back casually.

Before he could say anything else, Yang pushed away, releasing his neck from her hold, "I'm going to take the lack of rejection as a yes, and go get us some pie. You like Apple?" she asked. He found himself staring at her blankly once again, and she just grinned and winked, "I'll just bring Apple and Pumpkin and we can share. How about you find us some seats, babe?"

With that, she waltzed off towards the kitchen like she lived here, leaving an utterly baffled Jaune, surrounded by relatives, many of whom had been paying lots of attention to his interactions with Yang, and all of whom had heard loud and clear as she called him babe and announced that they could just share their dessert.

Did he hit his head on something earlier?

Realizing that at this point, there wasn't much else he could do, he followed Yang's instructions and found a spot on one of the couches in the living room with enough space for both of them and sat down, making sure he took up all the space so nobody else would sit there. He could see a few of his sisters looking his way occasionally, but ignored them as best as he could. Thankfully, none of them came over.

He was already dealing with one crazy blonde woman, he didn't need more than that at once.

Jaune didn't have to wait long for his dessert to arrive (Though what with the person bringing it to him, he almost didn't want dessert, as blasphemous as it sounded.)

"Oh good, I was worried you were going to stick us up in the dining room." Yang said as she approached him, "There's like, a gajillion old people in there, talking about their glory days. Your family is crazy." She handed him a slice of apple pie, dropping into the space next to him as he made room, a plate with pumpkin pie in her hand, just as she said.

"You're calling MY family crazy? You?"

She levelled a challenging glare his way.

"No way, you don't get to scare me away from knowing that your uncle is a friggin psycho, your dad tells more terrible jokes than my entire extended family combined, Ruby is hyper and so addicted to cookies she'd experience actual withdrawal symptoms without them, and-" he cut off as she raised an eyebrow, obviously knowing who was next on the list.

"And?" she prompted.

Aware that he'd suddenly crossed some sort of line, Jaune decided to go back on his previous assertion.

"Um, and then there's my wonderful girlfriend who has beautiful hair and doesn't murder me brutally in my own home tonight?" he threw out in apology.

She stared at him long enough to get him squirming uncomfortably before cracking a smile, "Better."

"Now," she changed the topic, "Eat, I'd hate to think I brought you that pie for nothing."

He took a small bite of his pie, before watching enviously as Yang took a big chunk out of hers.

She noticed his expression, and a wide grin settled on her features, "Jaune, Pumpkin pie wouldn't happen to be your favourite, would it?"

He looked up at her from the pie sheepishly, "Uh, maybe?"

"Want some?" she asked.

Jaune nodded warily, wondering what the cost would be.

He quickly got his answer as Yang broke off a piece with her fork and offered the end with the pie out to him like she was about to feed a baby.

"I could just, you know, get it myself and, uh" she stared him down until he stopped talking, steadily moving the fork closer to his face.

The pie was so close now, he could almost taste it, and finally his hunger won out. Yang grinned wide as his features dropped in defeat, and she moved in for the kill, "Come on babe, it'll be cute." She winked, as he took the bite of pie off her fork and started chewing, grudgingly enjoying it.

"Now, was that so bad?" she asked, still grinning at him. Jaune rolled his eyes and nodded at her.

He had caught a bit of a lucky break, as it seemed only a few of the people in the room had noticed the interaction.

Unfortunately, his sisters were amongst those who did notice, and they were all whispering and giggling now. That was not good for him.

That was never good for him.

"Want some more?" he heard Yang ask, making him quickly shift a little bit away from her, "I'm good, thanks."

She shrugged, a small grin still on her face, "Suit yourself" she teased him in a high tone.

He took another bite of his apple pie, sighing sadly as Yang made a show of eating her slice. It was honestly the cruelest thing Jaune thought anyone had done to him recently.

"You're an awful girlfriend, denying me my pumpkin pie."

She side glanced at him, "All you have to do is ask, Jaune."

"Yea, ask for food and get treated like a toddler."

"I just want to make sure you get all of it." She retorted, crossing her legs. She let her foot brush against his pantleg periodically, probably to annoy him.

Jaune spared her a glance, "I learned how to eat on my own a long time ago, you really don't need to worry about it." She pouted playfully.

"Can't a girl be concerned about her boo?"

He laughed, "I'd be real touched by how much you care if this wasn't just some joke to mess with me."

She brought her hands up over her heart, looking like she was feigning hurt, "Jaune, I thought we were friends. I'm just making sure you don't embarrass yourself by choking on the pie in front of your family." He snorted at that, even as her mouth twitched into a tiny smirk. "So you think being force fed by someone like a two year old is less embarrassing than choking?"

"Well, being fed by a gorgeous woman such as myself would surely be a flattering situation, I would think. All your uncles and cousins are probably jealous right now." She winked at him.

The two ate in silence for a few minutes, looking over all the other people in the room. Both, for one reason or another, steadfastly ignored the curious and confused gazes of Jaune's sisters, who thankfully had continued to keep their distance.

Setting down his plate, Jaune sighed at the apple pie left on it. He didn't hate apple pie, of course, but he was really looking forward to having pumpkin pie, and Yang had stolen the opportunity from him. A glance to the side revealed that there was only one bite's worth left of her pie on the plate.

"Want it?" Yang asked, bumping shoulders with him, either having noticed his glances or just knowing he'd want the last piece.

He turned his head to stare at her warily, "Can I use my own fork? Or should I just go see if there's more slices left to grab?" his 'girlfriend' rolled her eyes, shifting the plate in his direction. He paused for a moment before striking out, nabbing the pie and bringing it to his mouth before Yang could pull anything on him. She doubled up with laughter at his actions.

"What'd you think I was gonna do, Jaune, shove the plate in your face?" he gave her a defensive look, as if saying that he wouldn't put it past her, and she laughed even harder.

Once she'd reigned in her amusement, Yang slung an arm around Jaune's shoulders and pulled him in for a side hug, waving her other arm expressively, "Come on, Jauney, I'd never do something like that to you. All jokes aside, I'm not that bad!"

He shook his head, "I've learned to be ready for anything while you're around, Yang."

One eyebrow went up in some hellish mix between curiosity and challenge, "Anything?"

"Pretty much anything." He confirmed, expecting some sort of joke or teasing to come his way from it.

Instead, Yang leaned closer and quickly snuck a kiss onto his cheek, in plain view of his sisters.

She grinned slyly at him as she retreated, keeping her arm around him but leaning away. "You look like you've handled that well." She teased, watching his face redden. "Aw, look at you blushing, aren't you adorable!" she reached up and patted his cheek, right where she'd kissed him, and the thought just made his blush darken. "I bet Ginny won't have anything to say about that, huh Lady Killer?"

The reminder made him look down, before shooting his gaze upwards to his sisters across the room.

Most of them were watching him and Yang with wide eyes. Ginny had her mouth stuck wide open in surprise. Ruby, Yang's little sister, looked a little surprised as well, but she obviously knew her sister well, because she was more amused looking than anything else.

He was pretty sure Maddie was giving him a thumbs up, and had no idea whether to be encouraged or horrified by that.

He turned his attention back towards Yang as she started speaking, "You know, if you don't want them watching, you could always take me somewhere more private." She winked at him as they made eye contact, and Jaune sputtered at the suggestion.

Then, he happened to spot Ginny making her way across the room towards them with a dangerous gleam in her eye, and Yang's suggestion, even if delivered in jest, earned a lot more merit.

He'd go on his own and leave her, but his mother had raised a gentleman and it'd be rude to do so.

…Also if he left her down here it would give her time to plan more ways to mess with him. God knows what he'd do if she decided to use that time to introduce herself to his parents. He'd never survive that.

"Maybe I'll get right on that." He spouted quickly, jumping out of his seat and grabbing Yang by the hand, yanking her out of her seat and dragging her away from his evil sister. He knew that he was probably going to pay for it, but at least once Yang killed him he wouldn't have to put up with this anymore.

Yang let out a surprised noise as he pulled her off the couch, but didn't resist as he tugged her out of the room. He slipped past a few relatives with surprising skill, ignoring their surprised stares as he lead Yang to the stairs and up, away from all his family.

Once they reached the top, he stopped and looked down the steps to see if Ginny had followed, but after a few moments without her showing up, he decided he could relax. Just in time for Yang to pull her hand from his and curl it into a fist, before landing a heavy punch into his shoulder.

He jumped back, clutching his shoulder with a wince, "OW! What the hell?" he looked up to see Yang staring at him with a frown on her face and one eyebrow raised.

"That's for manhandling me again."

He sighed, knowing it was useless to argue against that. He'd deserved it.

"That's fair." He conceded, rolling his shoulder gingerly to try and relieve some of the pain, which of course just made it hurt even more. "Gods, why do you hit so hard?"

"I'm a boxer, ya big baby." She rolled her eyes at him, before glancing around.

"So, now that you have me all alone, what's the plan Lady Killer? Gonna take me to your room?"

His face went pink at the insinuation, but he was too busy cradling his shoulder to really react to her teasing.

"I think I'll just stay right here where it's safe. Every time I take you somewhere it seems to go badly for me." He shot back, giving her a stink eye.

She just rolled her eyes again, looking around the hallway. She seemed to spot whatever she was looking for, because she turned and grabbed his hand, dragging him down the hall.

"What are you doing?" he asked, stumbling after her. She made a sudden turn and pulled him into the bathroom, stopping in front of the sink and turning to look at him with an amused smile.

"Since you're going to be such a wuss about getting hit, I'm gonna treat you like a wuss and make sure you aren't dying of severe bruising or anything." She sassed him, one hand landing on her hip.

Before he could fire back, she spoke up again, "Now take off your hoodie."

His eyebrows shot up, "What?"

She gave him an exasperated look, "I can't exactly see your arm with the hoodie on, doofus."

He glared, pulling off the piece of clothing, "wuss, doofus. You used to call me nicer names, sweet pea."

She grabbed the hoodie from him as soon as it was off and threw it on the ground, already pushing the sleeve of his tee shirt up to see his shoulder. He rolled it uncomfortably without thinking, and winced as a strike of pain lanced down his arm to his fingertips.

"Stop moving your arm, idiot."

"Idiot now, huh?"

She visibly refrained from punching his arm again, "You're the one that complained about them, so I'm trying to be more realistic now."

"How flattering." He said dryly. She smirked at him for a moment before her focus turned to his shoulder again.

"Well," she began, "You're not going to die. It's just a regular bruise, as long as you don't go around aggravating it all day it'll stop hurting by tomorrow, probably."

"Well if you hadn't punched me it wouldn't be hurting at all."

Her smirk widened, "I could kiss it better if you want."

Jaune looked down at her with mocking eyes, "Pretty please?" he said, using a childish voice. She laughed, reaching up and tousling his hair, pushing his face aside. He chuckled as well, looking over his shoulder to check his reflection and see how the bruise looked, but froze as he felt an unfamiliar sensation brush against his shoulder for only a moment. His eyes reached the mirror in time to see Yang lift her eyes to meet his through their reflections, lifting her head away from his shoulder with a tiny smile tugging at one side of her lips.

He stared at her through the mirror with his mouth hanging open in surprise. The fact that this was the second time she'd kissed him in some capacity was surprise enough, and he was starting to wonder what angle she was playing with this, because even Yang wasn't the type to do this much for some joke.

"What are you up to?" he asked, sounding confused. Her head tilted to the side, smile widening.

She gestured to his arm, "Does it still hurt?"

He was surprised by the question, but now that he looked down at his shoulder, it didn't feel so bad at the moment. He shifted so his arm faced the mirror, so he could get a better look. A large patch had started to darken from the bruising, but it didn't look too horrible, all things considered. He tugged his sleeve back over it, and that was enough to cover most of it up, he could just put his hoodie back on later to make sure nobody saw it and asked about it.

"I mean, not really, but that could just be cause I'm not moving it." He said at last, turning to face Yang again. Her smile morphed into a wide grin.

"Nah, it's totally thanks to me. You're welcome."

He snorted, "Good thing you didn't actually punch my teeth in, what do you think you'd do to make that feel better?" he joked, grinning down back at her.

Unexpectedly, Yang's grin lessened, as her expression became more thoughtful, and conflicted. It passed after a few seconds, and she looked back to him, the tiny smile from before making its way back onto her face.

"Probably this." She said, before leaning up on the balls of her feet and kissing him, actually kissing him.

He was so surprised he froze, giving no resistance as Yang's arms made their way to him, one resting against his cheek as the other ghosted over the bruise she'd given him, like the apology that she'd never voice aloud to him.

It took his brain a while to kick into gear, and finally figure out what was happening, and as soon as it did, it began helpfully reminding him of all the clues he'd totally missed leading to this.

He remembered how he'd thought of Yang earlier as being far more than just cute, and if he was being even more honest with himself, he hadn't been talking about how physically attractive she was.

Just as he felt Yang's hands starting to slip away, as if she was doubting her actions, Jaune wrapped one of his arms around her waist, tugging her closer. Reaffirmed, she stepped into him, and he placed his other hand against the bathroom counter to keep himself from toppling backwards.

Yang pulled back, and grinned more widely at him than he'd seen all night. "Finally catching on, Sweetcheeks?" she teased. Jaune didn't have any response to that, glancing down at their feet as his face burned at the memory of what had just happened. He heard Yang moving, and soon enough felt her nose nudging his playfully, trying to get his attention. He looked back up to come eye to eye with her, less than an inch away. "Come on, Jaune, kiss me." She prodded. His eyes flickered down her face to her lips before shooting away, and he felt her hand slide away from his shoulder, down his arm to lace through his fingers, squeezing lightly.

Realizing that this was something he couldn't let slip through his grasp, he returned the gesture and leaned in, feeling her let out a contented sigh as he did so, even as his heart beat wildly at what he was about to do.

If asked, Jaune wouldn't have been able to tell anyone how much time had passed, but he could certainly tell you how it ended.

"Hey, you two oka - ooooooh alrighty then." It didn't take long for the two teens' heads to shoot apart at the sound of another voice. They'd gotten so caught up in each other that they'd completely missed the footsteps coming up the nearby staircase and down the hall, letting Jaune's eldest sister, Maddie, sneak up on the two unintentionally.

Jaune's entire face burned both from recent activities and the embarrassment of getting caught during said recent activities. Yang's reaction was far less severe, though her cheeks still went a healthy pink.

Maddie eyed the two of them almost knowingly, flashing a sneaky grin at Jaune when he finally brought his gaze away from the ground.

"Well, that's interesting." She said, turning around. "I'll leave you two to it!" she called over her shoulder, practically skipping back down the hall, before she reached the stairs, they heard her come to a stop. "Oh!" she exclaimed, "Make sure to wrap it before you tap it, Jaune Jaune!" and quickly retreated down the steps, cackling all the way.

"Oh my gods." Jaune moaned, squeezing his eyes shut. He let one eye crack open just a bit when he heard Yang start giggling. He could see her press a fist to her mouth to try and muffle it, but that seemed to just make it even louder, so she instead buried her face against his chest, trying to smother her laughter there instead.

Hesitantly bringing an arm around her shaking form to rest on her back as she attempted to reign in her amusement, Jaune opened his eyes fully to stare down at the top of her head in confusion.

"Uh, Yang?"

She turned her head enough to look up at him, "Aw come on, that was funny!"

"More like mortifying." He mumbled. Yang nearly broke into another giggling fit at his expression.

"At least she's looking out for you?" she tried. "And hey," Yang added, "There are worse things to get caught doing than kissing someone."

He looked to his shoes again at the reminder of what he'd just been doing, but only seconds after felt a hand on his chin, lifting his head back up to face Yang. "I hope you aren't going to look at the floor every time I mention that, because I've kinda been hoping we could do a lot more of it." His eyes widened.

"Really?"

"Why do you think I agreed to your little sister's joke?" she deadpanned, "I figured if I played my cards right I could use it as a way to make you realize I was interested, but someone's head is full of rocks." She gave him a pointed stare.

"I mean, in hindsight," he admitted, "It all seems pretty obvious." Her hands flew into the air in frustration, "Well of course it does, now that I threw all caution to the wind and just kissed you until you got the damn point!"

He made to reply, but Yang kept going, "Seriously, I thought maybe when I kissed you on the cheek you'd get it, and that really seemed like a risky move at the time, but no, why would you realize then? You even gave me the perfect opening to kiss your shoulder too, and I thought that you were starting to flirt back, but of course you were just making a dumb joke and looked like a deer in the headlights after I did it! I was so worried that you just didn't like me and then when I did kiss you I was freaking out cause you weren't moving and I thought I had fu – " he cut her off, placing a hand on either cheek and quickly pulling her in, silencing her rant with a firm kiss.

Yang looked stunned by the action, and her wide eyes met his.

"I get it, I'm stupid." He said softly, "Really though, you never had anything to worry about." She gave him a disbelieving stare at that, and he shrugged, smiling at her, "I'd have to be completely senseless to not want this, who could turn down a girl as great as you?" his sincerity must have hit home, as that tiny little smile slipped back onto her face as she reached forwards and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face against him again as she hugged him. He grinned, bringing one arm back around her waist as his other hand brushed through her hair carefully.

"You know, even with all the horrible puns." She squeezed him tighter, enough to put pressure on his lungs.

"Don't ruin the moment, Schnookums." She mumbled against his shirt. He grinned, resting his chin on her head.

"Whatever you say, Honeybun."


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: So this year I release between the Thanksgivings. Even though the follow up doesn't really have a Thanksgiving theme anymore. Oh well.**

"I still can't believe you were that dense."

Jaune groaned, slamming his head onto his closed textbook. Nobody in the class paid it any attention, which provided a sad commentary at how common such a reaction was there.

Of course, that was about the billionth time he'd heard those words in the past two weeks since Thanksgiving weekend. For whatever reason, the fact that it'd taken him so long to pick up on what was going on was the part that had his friends dumbfounded, despite the fact it should have been obvious, given how oblivious Jaune was on a normal day.

Honestly, it was far more surprising in Jaune's mind that there had ended up being something to pick up on in the first place.

It's not like people usually went to Thanksgiving dinners to pick up a date, yet that was apparently exactly what Yang had been going for when she showed up at his house that Sunday.

"I still can't believe you can't believe it." he grumbled in return, ignoring Ren's quiet laughter.

Not that he was really complaining about all the grief his friend was giving him. Sure, he had to deal with the dry remarks Ren would constantly make, and the loud teasing from Nora as well, but he also had gotten to go out on multiple dates with Yang Xiao Long, who for reasons beyond his comprehension was interested in him, so it was an alright deal in the end.

More than alright, in fact, as he thought back on how those dates had gone.

Their first date had been pretty typical, as they went out to a restaurant for dinner. Nothing super fancy, but not a burger joint either. His sisters had tried to force him into a ridiculous plaid sweater vest, but thankfully their mother had intervened and helped him settle on a blue dress shirt that she said matched his eyes. Her help wasn't without a cost, of course, as his sisters had inherited their teasing nature from somewhere, and his mother was keen on enjoying her 'baby boy's first date'.

Yang had worn a purple dress, and laughed openly at him when he'd first seen her and his jaw had dropped, leaving him gawking at her like an idiot. She didn't say anything about it however, and simply joined arms with him and lead him into the restaurant. She hadn't teased him at all that night, in fact, and while he'd enjoyed the conversation and jokes that had something other than him as the butt of them, a part of him seemed to miss the teasing flirts that had accompanied them at his house on Thanksgiving.

Not that he had needed to worry, as by the time their second date rolled around, Yang was right back at it, making him wish he'd never missed it in the first place.

"She was being rather obvious, Jaune. Even for your standards." Ren's comment interrupted his train of thought, and he shifted his head to look up at his friend's bemused expression.

Ren wasn't even looking his way, the cheeky little… not even the decency to face Jaune while he insulted him.

"Need I remind you how long it's taken you and Nora to get your acts together?" he shot back, feeling victorious as pink flushed through Ren's cheeks. His best friend finally turned his way to fire him a glare, before his calm demeanor reasserted itself with practiced ease. "Nora and I were a completely different situation than this, so you don't get to try and use that as a defense, Jaune." Ren replied stoically. Damn him.

Their bickering was interrupted as the bell rung to signal the end of the school day, leading both boys to grab their things off the desk and head out the door into the quickly crowding hallways. They cut through the cafeteria to get from their class to the hall their lockers were in, splitting up when they got there as their lockers were in opposite directions, with Jaune's near the end of the hall and Ren's being more in the middle. They parted with a simple nod and wave to one another.

Jaune worked his way through the crowds to his locker, quickly opening it and shoving his things away, before he pulled out his coat and slipped it on. He thought for a moment before grabbing the books he'd need on the weekend for homework and putting them into his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder and slamming his locker door closed carelessly, striding off down the hallway.

He came to a stop near the end of the hallway, which connected to the main atrium of the school, right beside the front entrances. Turning, he slid past a few people to lean against the lockers next to an open one, alerting its owner to his presence. She paused for a moment her head swung his way with a grin, "Come here often, Shnookums?" Yang greeted, making Jaune hold back a groan before he returned the jab, "Only when you're around, Honeybun."

Yang snorted, "This might be the worst habit we could have ever fallen into."

He let out a short laugh before poking her cheek, "You started it, so we all know who to blame here." he taunted, smirking.

"Oh," she said, turning towards him completely, "You wanna play the blame game, babe? You're the one who made me decide to resort to it in the first place."

Jaune rolled his eyes, "So what, it's nobody's fault? How convenient."

"If you want to talk about things that are somebody's fault, did you know that apparently we aren't dating?"

That froze him, both surprise and sudden worry shooting up his spine, "What?"

Yang took a moment to notice his reaction and offered him a warm smile to assure him this wasn't anything bad. "Most of the school doesn't believe that we're together. Blake told me earlier." she explained, "Something about how it made no sense and we don't do anything together."

Shaking off the now unwarranted worry, Jaune quirked an eyebrow, "We eat lunch together and talk in the halls all the time."

A sideways grin from Yang, "We don't do anything coupley together, Jaune. At least not at school. Just look." she pointed down the hall, and Jaune followed her gaze towards where one of their friends, Neptune, was at his locker, making out with his current girlfriend, Dew Gayl, their arms around each other.

Turning back to Yang, he let out a chuckle, rubbing at the back of his neck. "So basically nobody believes we're together because we don't spend all our time sucking face like every other couple in the school?"

"That about sums it up, yea." Jaune looked down with a frown, causing Yang's brow to furrow with concern.

"Jaune," she began, placing a hand on his shoulder, "You know I don't care, right?" she told him. He offered a quick smile, "I know, but I don't think I'd like it if some guy shows up and asks you out because he doesn't think we're together." he pointed out neutrally. Yang snorted in response, "I'd make sure they knew then, duh." she exclaimed, before settling down again, "Look, I knew before any of this started that you probably weren't going to be big on PDA. There's nothing wrong with that and you don't need to make yourself uncomfortable just because people are idiots. They'll figure it out eventually."

He shook his head, because that wasn't it. Sure, she was right in that he wasn't big on PDA. He was shy, and awkward, obviously, so doing stuff like that in public wasn't the simplest thing in the world, but he wasn't against doing it. Looking at her, he could see she was still concerned, for him. That didn't sit right with Jaune, seeing as the last thing he wanted was to bring Yang's mood down.

Besides, as far as relationship issues went… well, this was a pretty easy fix, if Jaune thought about it.

So, Jaune proceeded with the most obvious solution to their problem. Nobody believed they were together, and pretty much everybody was in this hallway with them. That in mind, Jaune stepped forwards, hands reaching to rest on Yang's hips so that he could direct her back a couple steps, putting her back to the lockers as he leaned down, grinning as he took in her wide eyes and surprised expression before he kissed her in front of the majority of their year.

There wasn't any resistance to the act, obviously. He knew that Yang would be more than up for it, considering how hard she'd been trying to convince him she was okay without this kind of display. Some quote about protesting too much rang in the back of his mind as one of her hands came up to cradle his jaw, the other wrapping around to grip at the back of his hoodie beneath his coat.

Once the kiss had drawn on long enough that Jaune was sure he'd gotten the point across, (and once he found the willpower to stop,) he pulled back, resting his forehead against Yang's and grinned down at her as she stared dazedly in surprise, taking deep breaths.

"I have absolutely no problem with kissing my beautiful girlfriend in front of whoever is around." he declared in a quiet voice, only for her to hear, "I just wasn't sure if you'd be okay with it, and I didn't want to mess this up."

He knew she'd heard when her hand slid from his jaw to his cheek, her thumb brushing across the skin there in a light caress. "You don't need to worry so much, Jaune, I'm with you because I want to be with you."

In response to that, he kissed her again, more chaste this time, before stepping back with a mock salute. "I'll see you on the bus then, babe?" he said in a humored tone, throwing the pet name at her like she'd done to him so often already. She smiled after a second as he walked down the hall from her in reverse, and saluted back.

"You bet, Lady Killer!" she shouted, smirking at him as his cheeks reddened from the new nickname, making him turn around to hasten his steps as he headed out of the hall and outside to the bus, still grinning.

Yang sighed once he'd left, letting her head fall back against the lockers.

"Geez, you look like you're in heaven. If I'd known blondie boy could kiss like that I'd have dragged him off myself." Turning, Yang found herself being looked over by Coco Adel, a member of the year above them, the senior class. The older girl was giving her a suggestive look over her sunglasses, eyebrows raised almost impossibly high.

Reaching blindly to pull her coat and bag from her open locker, Yang threw them both on in a few smooth motions and kicked her locker door shut, before levelling a warning glare at Coco, and by extension basically every girl within hearing range, and said a single word.

"Mine."

With that said and done, she made her own way out of the hallway with a smirk on her face, off to say goodbye to some friends and head to the bus.

Meanwhile, Jaune himself had hopped onto his bus, he paused at the top of the steps and sighed, spotting Cardin Winchester and his cronies sitting in the back seats, before moving down the aisle and taking one of the seats near the middle of the bus, dropping his bag to the floor of the bus between his feet as he slumped down against the window.

He'd just closed his eyes to rest them for a few moments before he heard the heavy footfalls coming his way from the back of the bus and groaned to himself.

It was followed by a large hand landing roughly on his shoulder, jostling him and forcing him to sit up and turn to face his assailant.

"Hey there, Jauney boy." Cardin said, his voice as irritating as ever to Jaune's ears, "You know, I've been hearing some pretty funny stories the past few weeks."

Jaune rolled his eyes, "Do tell." He droned sarcastically. Cardin either didn't notice, or didn't care. Probably both.

"Well, there've been a few rumors about you and Yang Xiao Long." Jaune raised an eyebrow, curious as to where exactly this was going, "Now, as your friend," Another eye roll, "I was just making sure you knew so it didn't surprise you later. I mean, come on, Yang Xiao Long dating you? As if!" Cardin's gang must have followed him over, because now they joined him in laughing, as if Cardin had just told some hilarious joke. "Just wanted to make sure you didn't get blindsided by this, Jauney. I'd hate for you to hear it and start getting your hopes up, as if you actually have a chance." The bully went on, "Not like anybody would want to date a loser like y-"his insult was interrupted by the sound of somebody clearing their throat.

Jaune turned his head lazily to grin at Yang as he spotted her, standing in the aisle with one hand gripping the back of a seat tightly while she glared at Cardin.

"You're in my way." She drawled, tilting her head as she stared down the much larger Cardin, whose confidence seemed to have wilted with her arrival.

"W-what?" he asked, confused. Yang nodded her head at the empty space next to Jaune.

Smirking, she elaborated for Cardin, "I want to sit with my boyfriend. You're in my way. Is that alright, or should I use smaller words for you to figure it out?"

It was with no small amount of smugness that Jaune took in Cardin's flabbergasted expression. In his personal opinion, it was a very good look on the other boy's face.

"You, with… with him?"

Yang threw her arms up in feigned exasperation, "Oh my gods." She shoved Cardin back a few steps, forcing him and his friends to stumble down the aisle until there was enough room, and then slid into the seat on the bench next to Jaune, bumping hips with a sneaky wink his way in greeting before she turned on Cardin again.

"Yes. In fact, I'm off to spend the entire weekend at his house. I'm sure you can picture all sorts of things we might do there. Jaune does have a really comfy bed, after all." She smirked suggestively as she said it, eyebrows raised innocently, "Now how about you go away so I can enjoy some time with my boyfriend?"

That seemed to do the trick, as Cardin and his friends retreated to their seats at the back of the bus, seeming to be at an absolute loss for words after Yang's arrival.

The moment they were back in their seats, Jaune snorted and broke into unmanly giggles. Yang raised an eyebrow at the display, questioning.

"Sorry," he said, not sounding at all sorry, "That's just the most hilarious thing I've seen in my life."

Yang huffed, "Funny, huh? Not what I was going for exactly." Jaune snickered.

"I'm sure you were plenty intimidating to them, don't worry Honey."

Now was Yang's turn to snort. She pulled off her coat and stuffed it down with her backpack before settling in, leaning over to rest her head against Jaune, prompting him to shift back into the more relaxed position he'd been in before Cardin had come over, and bringing an arm up behind Yang to toy with her hair.

"You know, if Cardin gives you anymore trouble, I could beat him up for you." Jaune barked out another laugh, making Yang tilt her head up at him.

"What?" she whined, defensive.

Jaune just grinned, shrugging to show that he wasn't going to argue with her, "Nothing, you're just getting really over protective all of a sudden. It's really cute." Cue another huff, and a faintly muttered "Am not." from his girlfriend as she crossed her arms.

"Are too, cutie patootie." Yang threw out a hand to slap him in the chest lightly, "Don't even start with that."


End file.
